Where do the Badgers stack up in the NCAA Tournament field?
· Yahoo Sports
The Wisconsin Badgers are back in the NCAA Tournament after a one-year hiatus under head coach Mike Hastings, but for only the third time in the last 12 years, and are seeking their first win since the 2010 semifinal against RIT. Wisconsin enters as one of the last few at-large teams, one clear of UConn in the final spot.
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The Badgers have been the epitome of a hot-and-cold team this year, ascending as the nation’s number two team before enduring a six-game losing streak, finishing the season with some highs and lows before a Big Ten Tournament opening-round loss to Ohio State. They went 7-7-2 against ranked teams during the regular season, with four of those losses kicking off that six-game skid.
More importantly, Wisconsin went 3-1 against ranked teams in the last four games of the regular season when fighting for their postseason lives. The home loss to the Buckeyes, while inconvenient, also seemed like an emotional letdown after performing well in so many high-stakes games. Hopefully, the rest did them some good, because it’s all high stakes for the Badgers from here on out.
As for the draw, Wisconsin ships off to Boston—well, Worcester—for their regional semifinal against the champions from the ECAC, Dartmouth. The region is headlined by the third top seed and a team the Badgers are intimately familiar with, Michigan State, which takes on UConn in their opener.
Sharing Wisconsin’s side of the bracket in Sioux Falls is the second one seed, North Dakota, taking on Merrimack out of the Hockey East conference. Providence and Quinnipiac round out a region that doesn’t feature a common opponent for the Badgers, while all other regions have at least two.
Another familiar Big Ten foe, Michigan, earned the conference’s auto-bid and is the tournament’s top seed playing on the other half of the bracket in Albany. They’ll take on the American Hockey champions, Bentley. If they can move on, they’ll get either Minnesota Duluth or Penn State in the quarterfinal.
Western Michigan headlines the final group in Loveland, Colorado, entering the tournament as the fourth overall seed and taking on the CCHA champs, Minnesota State, in a matchup between teams the Badgers are a combined 0-1-2 against this season. NCHC champion Denver and Cornell make up the other matchup in the region.
Wisconsin holds a 4-5 record against the top four seeds and 6-7-2 overall against the field, which says they can rise to the challenge on any given day but might be best suited to embrace the underdog mentality. Honestly, the same can be said of their regular season. The Badgers lost their way a bit after a stellar first half full of head-turning wins against Michigan and Michigan State.
They’re a better team when they play with something to prove, and going fifteen years without an NCAA Tournament win certainly appears to make for a pretty heavy appetite. I think there would be a level of comfort if Wisconsin were to get past Dartmouth and meet Michigan State in the quarterfinal, making a Frozen Four run not quite as far-fetched as it seems.
The Badgers won’t be anybody’s favorite pick, but let’s say they get hot and make a run to Las Vegas—North Dakota might be the scariest team on that side of the bracket, and while they are a strong hockey team, they don’t have the resumé to strike fear into a team that’s been through the Big Ten gauntlet this year. Either way, should Wisconsin advance, it would be guaranteed to meet an unfamiliar foe in the Frozen Four.
Across the aisle will likely be at least one team Wisconsin’s seen this year, if not two. Michigan or Penn State would be the most likely contenders in the Albany region, while Western Michigan could easily be the Loveland representative. I’m not saying the Badgers are going to go on an epic tournament run, but I am saying they will take the ice in any game believing they can win after skating with most of these teams all season.
While a Badger run would be ideal, if they don’t win it all, my money would be on a team they’ve already beat this year in either Michigan or Michigan State, both of which they split with in the regular season.
Wisconsin is just a quick four-game run from a repeat of 2026 when the Badgers won championships in both men’s and women’s hockey, the only program in history to do so. Jekyll and Hyde have both reared their heads throughout the season for Wisconsin, but they’ve played well enough at times to beat anybody. The only question is if they can keep the glass slipper on and keep the clock from striking midnight, starting by getting the monkey off their back against Dartmouth on Thursday.